Early career scholarship rewards Tassie teacher's passion and ingenuity

Each year Public Education Foundation awards its Teachers Health Early Career Scholarship, which supports public school teachers in the first three years of their career, with $10,000 provided for professional development opportunities.

This year’s worthy recipient is Tasmanian Ronan Douglas, a Year 11 and 12 teacher at Hellyer College in Burnie, who’s short career so far has been characterised by a quiet passion for empowering his students and supporting his teaching peers, particularly in rural and regional areas.

Having studied a Bachelor of Science in Maths and Psychology, and entering the profession via Teach for Australia, this year Douglas is teaching psychology, intro to sociology and psychology, and Tasmanian Aboriginal studies.

He says an essential part of his HASS teaching involves critical thinking, and that was a big driver of his scholarship application.

“Something I’m quite passionate about is students’ critical thinking, and that was a focus of my masters as well, in terms of ‘how do I give students the ability to think critically around different issues and things that happen to them and the content they’re consuming?’” he tells EducationHQ.

“In today’s climate, we’ve got misinformation, disinformation all around us – and so really allowing students to take that information and actually decide, ‘well, is that actually valid and reliable information that I’m receiving, or are there downsides, or has it been produced in a certain way that is putting forward a certain idea’?”

Douglas says his application and interest area for further professional development is also around embedding First Nations perspectives, particularly in North West Tasmania.

“At our school, 16 per cent of our students identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and so I find that really important to embed that in the classroom through Year 11-12 study, as it feels a little like it gets lost after Year 10.”

“Growing up on the north-east coast of Tasmania, opportunities to broaden one’s horizons are often limited,” Douglas says. “With this scholarship, I’ll be able to succeed in one of my most unlikely dreams of going to Harvard!”

The young educator says he's looking at ways to develop the state's VET courses so they might better cater to First Nations students. 

“It’s quite student-led as well. We’re building a cultural area within the school and also looking towards how do we start recognising culture more clearly in the college and supporting students with their attendance and looking at some of the data around First Nations students and their peers.

“What are some of the gaps that we can start to close at this level?”

A non-Indigenous man from Bridport in Tasmania’s North East, Douglas says something he’s really enjoying is, in a way, taking a different lens to education.

“...being able to teach [First Nations] perspectives really, in many ways, subverts the actual ways that you, as an educator, expect teaching to happen.”

“So it lends itself a lot more to going outside of the classroom and doing a lot of those on-country experiences,” he explains.

Last year, for example, he took a class out to local rural community Rocky Cape with the Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation and looked at the history of that area and its different food resources.

“And it’s these experiences that have shifted my own understanding as well, like just walking through environments and actually seeing the different plants and animals, how that connects, and really fostering that sense of place and community both in the classroom, but also how that spreads beyond the school, too.”

Douglas is clear on how he will be using his $10,000 scholarship to help bring new insights and strategies back to his students and school community – and that involves winging his way to Harvard University in the US.

“So it’s specifically going to the Project Zero classroom sessions, which are held over the course of a week,” he says.

“It’s primarily focused on those ideas of critical thinking and creativity, as well as authentic assessment and developing understanding, but particularly the part that I’m interested in is the diverse learners and diverse context idea.”

It’s very much about supporting all learners but also how that extends to cultural diversity in Tasmania, specifically.

“So I think it’s kind of a way that a lot of the things that I’m interested in coming into one focus, where I can increase my knowledge in those spaces, and particularly working with different educators from across the globe around how they’re actioning those ideas and getting some of that recent research, then further my own teaching practice as well.”

Douglas says the scholarship opportunity is allowing him to reflect on the assessments and learning experiences he provides in a way that helps to ensure they support his students’ transition from formal schooling.

“Personally, it will also enable me to work with the network of Tasmanian teachers to improve literacy and metacognitive outcomes across the state,” he says.

Douglas says before he started his teaching degree, the main people that he looked up to and inspired him, were his teachers. 

He says he’s still inspired daily by his fellow teachers at Hellyer, particularly by their collegiality, but also their openness to learning themselves.

“I’ve been quite privileged in the way that a lot of the teachers here are really receptive to new ways of learning and innovation and change,” he says.

“I think more broadly, sometimes there is a little bit of resistance, but on the whole, I’d say that most teachers that I’ve spoken to generally are quite keen to look at how they can best support their students and move forward with different ways of teaching and learning.”

Sadly, across the country, we are losing qualified teachers every day, particularly in rural and regional Australia.

“Having strong teacher leadership in the next few years will be critical in ensuring that our students are not put at a disadvantage,” Douglas says.

“By enhancing my understanding of how to prepare students for the challenges of the future, I hope to one day lead my colleagues in developing thoughtful students who can meaningfully engage with the world around them.”